working on monitors in general

Malice95

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Being a total noob at working on crt's (slowly reading and teaching myself).

How do yall work on them? I mean when troubleshooting and adjusting them
its a pain to run back and forth to the front of the machine.

Do you pull everything out PCB, power supply, wiring, monitor and work on a bench?
Or do you just pull the monitor and set it on a stool at the back of the game?

Beside an occoliscope and digital multimeter, are their any other test tools that
come in handy fixing them?

Malice95
 
If you do a lot like me, you have a bench with a cheap JAMMA PCB that nobody wants to buy, a harness, and an isolation transformer. The you can do it all on the bench and reinstall it when it's looking great.

For new people who won't do a lot, learn which can be worked on with just pulling the chassis and which should really have the entire thing pulled, then use a mirror for making adjustments....
 
If you are that NOOB just like I am.

I would highly recommend for you to read this link

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=143645

be sure to acknowledge about "Discharging the monitor" this could save your life to avoid shocking to death by 30,000 voltage!

Yep.. I've read that bit so far.. and built a good discharge tool.
I need to study theory and such.

I've been looking for someone with an Randy Fromm set for sale.

Malice95
 
modessitt,

Can you tell me more about your setup?

I have 4 games to fix and will probably pickup more as I get good at this.
A benchtop setup would be great. What about power? Dont some monitors
require odd voltages? Like the X/Y ones? I have 2 asteroids that need cap kits.

Do you just use a switching power supply for the jamma board?
Do you often find differences when going from one game board to
another on the same monitor?

Malice95
 
I have an isolation transformer with it's own power switch attached so I can turn the monitor power on and off without turning off the game pcb. I have different power adapters depending on the monitor I am trying to test.

I have a switching power supply with a JAMMA harness attached, also on it's own power switch. I wired in a switch to flip between positive and negative sync, depending on what board I am testing. I build JAMMA adapters for testing non-JAMMA boards, and have a rebuilt 13" monitor that I use on the bench when testing game pcb's. I also have an old X-Arcade control panel that I stripped out and rewired to use as a test control panel.

I have a partially functioning Blitz '99 PCB that has an on-screen test menu with different monitor test screens: color bars, cross hatch, and solid color screens among them. It has a switch to change the resolution between standard and medium, depending on what monitor I am testing at the time. I keep several tubes of the common chassis types handy so I can test and troubleshoot everything on my bench until it's fixed. I have a full-length mirror on the wall to one side of my bench so I can look over the monitor at the picture whenever I wish.

For something like X/Y monitors, it's a bit more difficult to build test bench setups, due to the different voltages and such, so I usually connect those to the game. Extension cables are great for having a monitor on the bench, but still connecting it to the cabinet. If you don't have one, I'll usually turn the cabinet so the back is easily accessible, then set up a small table that I can set the monitor on while testing it.

Bear in mind that pulling entire monitors for rebuilds are usually only necessary for something that is resisting repair using the easy methods (new caps, flyback, HOT, VR, and fixing cold solder joints). Otherwise, if the monitor has signs of life and you just need to freshen it up, then you can just pull the chassis, rebuild it on your bench, then put it back in and use a mirror to make adjustments.

And it's always a good idea to meet other local collectors, especially those with large collections. Then you can always take stuff over to their games and test them, just in case something else in your cabinet is causing your problem....
 
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